You know, that's something I've wondered about before -- exactly how much of an advantage it is to an Olympic hopeful to have been born in one of the larger, more industrialized nations.

It's largely dependent on the sport in question.

Long distance runner? You're probably better off being born in Kenya than any of the large industrialized nations (most of whom send their best athletes in those disciplines to train in Kenya with Kenyans anyway).

Swimmer? Kenya might not exactly be the best option. Equestrian... even less likely.

To talk about a sport I actually know a fair amount about, for a prospective Olympic boxer there are a whole host of countries that would better prepare an athlete than the US, even outside of the obvious example of Cuba.

As a general rule an Olympic hopeful from a major industrialised nation is going to have better chances than one not from one; there are a wider variety of sports avaliable and greater access to funding. But depending on the sport in question you'll often find at least one (if not more) smaller, less wealthy countries that have, for lack of a better term, specialised in a given discipline and may well lead the world in it.

The thing is, Russia has had seven years to get the games area and hotels and stuff ready. That it isn't is a blow against the Russians. Sure they have most of the main things working, but the little details are showing that Sochi really wasn't ready for the games. no running water, having to put used toilet paper in a basket beside the toilets, locked or missing elevators, locked doors.. With a price tag of $51 billion, things like that should be working.

You seem to think the superpower and the other First world nations do what? Buy their medals? What does a large population have to do with the skill of the athlete?

Well factors like wealth of the country, population and status in the world have very much to do with which country gets the most medals. If you see this chart you will immediately notice that the top 5 countries for example are/were very wealthy and have pretty large population. Of course there are countries like Norway that do very well in winter olympics or certain sports but when you look at the big picture they don't really matter. You can also notice that now when China's position in the world is strengthened and they have acquired more wealth, their results have improved tremendously. In 2008 they even beat the USA in gold medals and in 2012 they still did very well coming second. So yes those factors affect very much.

I love China's approach to Olympic athletics in some regards by setting up those massive farming systems to find athletes and throwing them into state financed sports academies in lieu of a more Western school extra-curricular athletics system. It's like some athletic version of Toddlers in Tiaras/Hunger Games. But I shouldn't knock it, the results kinda speak for themselves, they're going to be passing up the Americans again and again in these medal runs in the future, it's simply inevitable.

Two of the Pussy Riot girls were whipped and face slapped after getting knocked to the ground by Putin's cohorts (or shall we say, the special security staff). Grisly stuff. The value in political visibility from suffering such an act there and now can barely even be measured in millions of rubels.

I'm not sure which is worse for them, being insulted by a rebellious band that will only be silenced by force, or looking like a bunch of pussies for using force against a bunch of unarmed musicians. In all fairness, I'm not sure there was a winning move for the Russian government/police here.

I agree with the others above. But in all fairness, illegally protesting in the US would also result in force being used, even if you are unarmed. Seems like the authorities there really overdid it though.

I agree with the others above. But in all fairness, illegally protesting in the US would also result in force being used, even if you are unarmed. Seems like the authorities there really overdid it though.

Those look like those Cossacks that the Russians are employing as reserve law enforcement in Moscow and in Sochi for the Winter Games. Only Cossacks have such snazzy hats and carry around horsewhips instead of batons when on patrol. So overdoing it is probably their modus operandi.

I agree with the others above. But in all fairness, illegally protesting in the US would also result in force being used, even if you are unarmed. Seems like the authorities there really overdid it though.

Agree, and the cossacks did overplay their hand a bit. Plus, it takes really strong courage and resolve to put yourself in a situation where you know you might have that kind of force used against you - even if you know you want it on camera for the world to see.

Lenin, no less, once said - this was in 1905, many years before be took over power: "Get them /the people, the opposition/ onto the street. Who has been whipped is worth twice as much as those who haven't yet been whipped", and he was thinking of military guards (or cossacks) who would actually whip crowds of unarmed demonstrators from the height of their horses, or even shoot at them, shoot to kill.

I like that quote, it has a kind of hardnosed understanding of the cost of rousing people to change about it. (Lenin was no democrat, but then there were many people in Russia back then who didn't have to be communists to feel the weight of oppression from the Tsar and *his* henchmen)

It's weird, I remember reading RT articles a year ago and they stated the Cossacks wouldn't have any law enforcement or police powers.

I guess free citizens of Russia are allowed the freedom to whip whomever they want in public. Or maybe that's a special legal status given to Cossacks like Jews and Christians in some Muslim countries are exempt from various religious laws.